Brazil’s Labor Minister Steps Down Amid Corruption Allegations

Brazil’s labor minister, Carlos Lupi, stepped down over the weekend amid allegations of widespread corruption in the ministry.

Evaristo Sa/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Brazil’s Labor Minister Carlos Lupi delivers a speech during a hearing at the National Congress in Brasilia on Nov. 17, 2011. He stepped down Sunday.

Lupi’s departure marks the sixth Brazilian cabinet-level official to step down over alleged graft since June. The Wall Street Journal reported on his resignation, and there’s more here, here, here, here, here and here.

He said in a statement on the labor ministry’s website that the resignation was to spare the rest of the government further contagion from the scandal, which center on allegati0ns that top ministry officials took kickbacks from government contracts, according to the Journal report.

He was also criticized for taking a ride in the private plane of an executive from a contracting company that received ministry money. Last month Lupi denied even knowing the executive let alone riding in his plane, until video footage showed them at the foot of the aircraft, according to the Journal report.

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